


Just Grayson

by hawkstout



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Agent Grayson, Character Death Fix, Gen, New 52, spoilers for Forever Evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 14:32:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1473271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkstout/pseuds/hawkstout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Forever Evil Bruce convinces Dick to stay dead, but it turns out staying dead doesn’t mean you’re gone forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Grayson

He felt weak—of course he did he almost died, he had been the prisoner of Bruce’s alternate universe big brother—Lex Luthor has suffocated him—

But he was alright. He was alright.

 

But Bruce was looking at him as if he had died…

And he would know, he had seen that look in Bruce’s eyes too many times.

“What is it?”

They weren’t in the cave. They were in a safe house. Dick hadn’t even known this one existed. He wasn’t surprised by it though; Bruce had lots of little bat-holes that Dick didn’t know about. After everything had happened he had woken up here.

“Everyone thinks you’re dead,” Bruce said. He was staring at Dick as if trying to memorise his face.

He almost lost me, Dick reminded himself. He’s probably just trying to process…

But that didn’t ring true, even in his head. Bruce loved him as a brother at some times as a son at others. Bruce cared…

But he didn’t need to process very long.

“Well, we should tell them otherwise…” Dick said slowly, but he felt a sharp drop in his gut. Something was about to happen. Something that would change everything.

“I want—I need you to stay dead,” Bruce’s voice dropped heavily, like a stone in water. Dick wasn’t sure how to interpret this.

“Stay…?”

“The world knows who Nightwing is now,” Bruce continued, “Every villain, every hero, everyone that saw the Crime Syndicate’s broadcast knows who you are.”

Dick frowned, wanted to somehow refute this, but after everything, his peeled off mask had been the least of his problems, but Bruce was right.

His cover was blown.

“Nightwing’s not safe anymore,” He finished.

Bruce looked the tiniest bit relieved that Dick understood, and he did. Dick Grayson would be a danger to every civilian he made connections with, and if it wasn’t for Batman Inc., potentially Bruce’s identity could have been blown.

“So Dick Grayson, your ward joined the Batman’s cause and—”

“And I funded him to protect you,” Bruce finished, “Yes.”

Dick nodded, that was good, it would work. If anyone could pull it off it was Bruce.

“Okay,” Dick smiled, a bit pained. He had left friends in Chicago. They would think he’s dead, but in the long run it was safer for them if Dick Grayson disappeared for awhile…

Bruce was looking worried again. The small furrow of the brows gave him away. Dick had been reading his face since he was sixteen.

And they weren’t in the Batcave.

And Alfred wasn’t here making sure he was recovering properly.

He hadn’t got a ‘glad you’re alive’ call from Tim.

Or an earful from Barbara.

Or…

“Bruce…” He whispered as it clicked into place. He started shaking his head.

“You need to stay dead, to everyone,” Bruce said again.

“No,” Dick said, “I can’t do that, I can’t do that to them. I can go anywhere you want, I can live in a hole for the next three years, but you can’t let them think that I’m dead. That’s not fair, that’s not—”

“I don’t want you in a hole, I want you doing what you’re good at… SPYRAL.”

“SPYRAL?” Dick looked at him incredulously, “They didn’t dissolve?”

“No, they didn’t. I want you to join them as an agent, but to do that—”

“I have to be dead, I can’t Bruce. I can’t!” He was pacing now, he couldn’t stop moving. He was so angry, angry at the very idea of it, “Haven’t they mourned enough? Haven’t we had enough death in the family? Damian—” His voice hitched because he couldn’t. “I can’t do that to them Bruce. Barbara, Tim, Alfred—I—Jason only came back not long ago, but not the same. We keep shrinking Bruce. I can’t—I—”

Bruce stood solidly against Dick’s frantic movements. Dick turned and faced Bruce head on again, stood still, waited for an argument.

 

Bruce slowly brought his hand to his ear.

“You can come in now,” He said.

Dick blinked. He expected Kathy Kane, or an agent of SPYRAL.

“I’m not a spy Br—”

His voice died in his throat.

He was older now, taller and a bit thicker. Bruce’s physic was starting to come through. His expression was neutral. He would be twelve now.

Dick fell to his knees.

No.

“Grayson,” Damian said. He seemed to be trying to keep his old arrogant air, but it wasn’t working.

Damian Wayne was just as overwhelmed to see him too.

At some point Dick had crawled, or got up and moved to fill the space between them. He had wrapped his arms around the boy’s tense shoulders. Damian didn’t return the hug, he had always been unsure about displays of affection, but he did lean in a little bit.

“Of all people, it was you that was the hardest to deceive, and leave bereaved,” Damian said quietly. The guilt in his voice spoke volumes, but Dick’s anger wasn’t aimed at Damian. Through his tears he looked furiously at Bruce. Bruce kept a neutral face.

“He was dead!” Dick pushed through his emotion, “He was dead, I saw his—”

“You were unconscious, he was heavily wounded and I made a choice. You saw what I wanted you to see.”

“You mourned!!!” Dick roared. He was still holding Damian, who didn’t push away. He seemed to understand Dick needed to be able to hold him right now. He was solid, he wasn’t a ghost.

“I mourned,” Bruce agreed, “My decision and what it did to you and the rest of them. I needed to see you all heal, but it was the right choice, Dick. Damian was safe.”

“Safer than before at any rate,” Damian put in. He pulled back from Dick. Dick reluctantly let go. He was shaking he was so angry.

“And now you want to do the same to me? Let them mourn me when I’m—” Damian, Damian was standing in front of him alive and well.

“You’re in danger,” Damian said forcing Dick to shift his focus. “Every villain in Gotham knows your name and face. Any association you have with the others will only expose them as well, no matter how covert you are. You—!” Damian calmed himself down, “I didn’t want to put you through my death Grayson, but the madness that had taken hold of mother would surely have been aimed at you eventually if I had stayed at your side.” His blue eyes flashed at Dick, “I’m… I apologise, but I did it for you as much as it wounded you.”

“You didn’t—HE told you to, so you—” He glared up at Bruce again.

“He did,” Damian agreed, “And I listened to him, now you need to listen too. Come with me. The organization could use good people like you, Grayson. It has enough assassins and spies. What it needs right now, is a hero. A real one.”

“You are a hero,” Dick said. He felt so hurt by the whole thing, and it was hard to pull his thoughts together. He thought after Jason nothing would surprise him or emotionally wreck him like this. He had hoped for it too. That Damian would magically walk through the door one day, and here he was, asking him to play spy.

Damian smiled somewhat fondly, “I’m more comfortable being a secret agent truthfully, but it means a lot that you view me that way.”

Bruce was still a silent shadow in the corner.

“I need to talk to Bruce,” Dick said. Damian nodded and left the room with little ceremony. Dick wasn’t sure. Maybe it was a dream, maybe he had hallucinated the whole exchange…

“I—I can never forgive you for this,” He said quietly.

Bruce nodded, similar to Damian. “I know, but I did it anyway. For him.”

“Yeah.”

“And you as well.”

“But mostly for yourself,” Dick whispered viciously, “One too many weaknesses for Batman.”

Bruce didn’t dispute it. He had his own ideas about necessity and family. Ideas Dick was starting to question.

Dick thought a lot of things about Talia, but he had never thought she would be capable of killing him, something to into her, destroyed her. She was dead, so where was the danger now? Why was it all still a secret?

“Another death in the family,” Dick said miserably, “You really want me to do that to them?”

“It’s your choice,” Bruce said, and Dick knew he didn’t have a choice at all.

He pulled himself up to stand straight, reflecting Bruce’s solid stance, then he headed toward the door. One of the most infuriating things about Bruce Wayne was that his arguments were always solid, and he had enough skill to convince almost anyone of anything…

And Dick was completely loyal to him, even after all of this.

He was even willing to hate himself and abandon his family to follow his orders.

“You’ll be a team again,” Bruce said, maybe as a consolation.

“I’ll make an awful spy,” Dick was trying to be a bit brighter, to make a dumb joke, but it fell flat. “I won’t kill people, you taught me to not—”

“I’m not asking you to be Agent Grayson, I’m asking you to be a Grayson. You make your own destiny, you always have.”

“How much time?”

“Your ride’s here now.”

Of course he knew he would agree in the end.

Damian was waiting for him in the next room. He had a more perfected neutral face, but there was just a bit of excitement, and it radiated in Dick as well.

They were always the best, no matter what anyone said.

It was good to be back with his partner.

“Are you ready, Nightwing?” Damian asked. Always codenames on the job.

“Grayson,” Dick corrected. He glanced back at the dark figure still in the shadows. He tried not to think of the expression and the grief of his friends and family’s faces.

“It’s just Grayson now.”


End file.
